Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

I have a Bundy II by Selmer Alto Sax. It's in pretty good condition. Just a few scratches where the bell starts to turn up. It comes with the case, neckstrap, and reed guard. I have a picture if you would like to see it. The reason I'm selling is A) I'm a poor college student B) I play oboe and my professor doesn't allow me to play sax anymore. I took very good care of it. I'm selling it for about $400.

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Depends on what type of sax you want. Alto, tenor?
IMO, I have a student model Armstrong that has lasted me for over a decade and I would recommend it to anybody. I think Conn makes it now as the 24MHF. If you take care of it, plus maybe some after-market additions (new mouthpiece, ligiature, etc) you can get a very nice sound out of it.
Now for tenor, can't help ya. I'm using a Bundy II right now (it's my schools tenor) but it's a hunk of junk. Bb key latch post was welded on so many times that one day it snapped (actually right before rehersal at our County Band Festival). Didn't have it for months. But that's taking into consideration what was done to it while in the hands of other students who didn't handle it as gingerly and tenderly as I did.
I've heard good things about Selmer USA instruments. Never played one, but I've read good things. But that's my two cents.
Good luck with your decision!!

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

I can recomend the Conn 24M-HF. I have bought it recently for my son on ebay and was very impressed by it.
You know what the say about the modern Conns, but for this model it is definetly not true. It is very well crafted, has a great sound, nice easy going keywork and a very good intonation.
Good thing about them is, you can pick them up realy cheap on ebay. But make sure it is the new model. The 24M has been build since 1997 in the States.

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

The Yamaha 475 and 62 are great horns. The YAS/YTS-23 student model is also a great horn, but if you shop around, you can usually find the 475 cheaper than the 23, and I really think it's a better horn. The new Yamaha's are a really great value.
I'm just not a big fan of Selmer, period. Selmer has been living off the reputation of their famous Mark VI. Their new horns are not nearly as good of quality. I have a Selmer Series III soprano that has been a big disappointment. Selmer will buy and desecrate every company they can get their greedy little hands on, starting with Buescher in 1963! Recently they bought the rights to distribute Yanagisawa in the US when they purchased Leblanc. The Selmer snobs have taken over the industry. Many of the so-called American Selmers are NOT made in America, but Taiwan. I wouldn't own another piece of shit Selmer if it were given to me!
Yamaha, Keilwerth or a vintage Conn Buescher, King or Martin.

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Jim,
You sound so serious yet every single time I have to chuckle when I read your posts about anti-Selmer. I dunno why. I just do. And I also tell ya I'll take that Series III off of your hands free of charge *smiles*
Yamaha's are good too. I played plenty of them when my Armstrong was in the shop (I liked it better than the Armstrong *eek).
I hope I'm not one of these Selmer snobs Jim keeps bit**ing about. I mean, I've always liked the Selmers I've played, but I've never played a real Conn or Buescher either. So I keep my mind open to all of it, hoping to absorb more as the day goes on.
Happy saxophoning!!

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Well, I think that a Yamaha is the way to go. I have a alto sax from yamaha, I looks in rough shape, I bought it in a place called MUSIC MEDICS it doesn't look good but keys work smoothly and has great sound, my teacher has one to, hase awsome sound and keys.
Now I dont know about Conn's dont have one but I've played one before. I think it's alright.

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

I bought a Yamaha YAS-23 alto 10-12-03 from the father of a high school kid who'd decided he needed a more expensive horn.(when I was in Olympia for Bert Wilson's band REBIRTH'S Thelonius Monk Birthday Party performance) It is my fifeteenth saxophone, and the second YAS-23 I've owned. I really didn't play the first YAS-23 very much, but I've really gotten into this horn, and was very surprised when I began to notice its similarity to a brand new Buffet alto I had for six months when I was in high school in the late '60s I had to return because I couldn't keep up with the payments. I've had a pristine Selmer Mark VI alto #83038, and a King Super 20 alto with a silver neck that was just as nice a horn, and that Buffet was definitely as good a horn as either of those or better. And after all of the years since I had that Buffet such a short time, I was very surprised at how similar the feel of the Yamaha is under my fingers and that I would even recall this; and the brace that holds the bell to the horn is subtley designed very similarly to the Buffet's so that only someone who'd played both horns would ever notice. The action is stiffer than on any of these top professional grade horns, and I've wondered whether that could be improved simpley by adjusting the instrument more carefully; but its really not a problem as it is-like karate' practice. I also have a '29 Buescher that sounds great, but needs an overhaul badly, and I'm thinking of using the non-leather TopTone pads to repad the Buescher with, and if I like them a lot, going through the Yamaha with them also...since they never stick and should last just about forever...and a set for an alto only runs $100 from TopTone and they include instructions and some hot glue sticks made especially for those pads.(I got to be part of a small master class with Yuri Yunakov Saturday afternoon during Sebastapol's Herdeljezi Festival, and my stunning lack of musicianship was overlooked, and we all probabley would've had more fun being given a boxing demonstration as he'd played from dusk until dawn the previous evening...but he got a kick out of my persistent attempts to pursue my muse, and talked about studying Charlie Parker a lot...I have a Beechler rubber mouthpiece model S2S that was nearly identical to his Beechler M2S and got a sound that was so close to what he got I couldn't tell the difference, and I also have a great Selmer S80 E facing mouthpiece that came with the Buescher, and a metal Berg Larsen 110 over 1 and all of them contribute to various personalities that Yamaha YAS-23 expresses so well)(during the Winter I noticed that my tonal concept on alto reminds me of a woman friend's voice who I know so well she once even picked up the phone after I began to leave a message, when she was in the midst of coitus as far as I could tell, a former "world beat" d. j. with one of those trademark FM woman's broadcaster's voices-I think it was this aspect of Bird's musicianship that shortened his life, and not the drugs...) One of my other really favorite horns was a '50s model Buescher Windsor tenor I got for $250 from a doctor in Berkeley out of the Flea Market classified ads newspaper...also a student model, and I'd had two Buescher Aristocrat tenors that were really fine horns also, but this Windsor had such a light fast action, and spoke so effortlessly, and was built simpley and like the proverbial brick outhouse, just like this Yamaha...so that a person has to wonder if all of the complexity of the more expensive horns is really worthwhile, or just a commercial ploy?(the year I was at North Texas State University, '70-'71, the owner of Pender's Music Store, which sold sheet music to the over 2,000 music majors there, and accessories, gave me a kindly lecture about the kickbacks high school band directors got when a student purchased an expensive instrument...I'd purchased a brand new Mark VI tenor for $600, when a friend who was a really good musician had an excellent SLM he wanted to sell me for $225...I'd been really brainwashed, and not just by musicians, but the whole capitalistic culture that is so driven by monetary impulse always...oh well)

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Sax Mom, I absolutely agree...I think I hit the wrong button on the computer too soon or something, as I remember having been very surprised when I got posted...I got temporarily banned from world-wide-web dot freejazz dot org for really rambling when I didn't know even as less as what I do know about computers, but these tiny windows to write in are also confusing...and I do try to edit myself a little now...what about a television series called THE ALTOS?(I don't have cable, so only know that other one by rep) There is a trucking company here called "Alto Bros." so maybe a plot could come of that?(on the old Arcata highway from Eureka)

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

I am also looking for a YAMAHA YAS-23 for my son. Does anybody here knows if there is any difference between an older one (say 10-12 years old) to a newer one (less than 5 years)? Assume conditions are the same. In other words, I just wonder if there has been any design/material change that will affect the sound/playing.
Thank you very much!

Re: Looking for a student Saxophone

I have heard all sorts of bizarre' enough claims about this model sax, which I've had two of now and currently my favorite alto of three...that one, and two Bueschers, a '29 model badly in need of an overhaul, and a '51Aristocrat recently purchased.
My Yamaha YAS-23 was purchased used in October of '03 from the father of a high school musician who'd gotten a more expensive instrument, but upon begining to play my YAS-23 I was reminded of a '67 Buffett alto the same model as the tenor played by Coltrane I'd gotten new and had to return after six months because I couldn't afford the payments as a high school student.
Recently someone at the new House of Woodwinds in San Ramone, CA told me what I think is bogus intelligence about the YAS-23 who refered me to Best Musical Instrument Repair in Oakland where i had a dent removed from the horn's bow section. My friend Jack Baxley who works at Forrests Music in Berkeley told me Best Musical instrument Repair was decades ago associated with Best Music store, a large retail outlet who also have a repairman who another musician recommended. Jack says the original House of Woodwinds in Oakland which had an excellent reputation was bought a few years ago by Best Musical Instrument Repair which subsequently closed that popular place down.
I think the Yamaha YAS-23 offers one of the best values in a saxophone ever, which is the horn Yuri Yunakov is photographed playing on one of his or perhaps Ivo Papasov's cd cover. I've also read Yamahas in general are a much prefered instrument in Cuba due to their quality, durableness and ease of repair.
If you are getting negative opinions about Yamaha instruments my theory is this is hype instituted by people trying to gouge you and sell alternate products. I know mine is a unique device and an incredible value, and the one I'd had decades ago was very similar.
And the nifty one piece curved guard on the bell keys is inspired as is the simple piece of metal protecting the rods near the right thumb rest. A potent design for the ages in my opinion, and with my own horn one I'm seeking to find a way to lighten the action on, which is stiffer than more expensive instruments though which may or may not be modifyable.(I was miffed my horn was returned with the low C# and B natural leaking due to insufficient spring pressure after I'd asked Best Musical Instrument Repair to lighten the action...which seems inexcusable to me and a great nuisance as I live 300 miles north of Oakland in a remote area with few resources, etc.)